The universe has been expanding for about 12 to 15 billion years, some think 14.5 billion years. I was thinking about time travel, and according to the Theory of Relativity time slows down as you approach the speed of light or C. Tme is relative though. What this means is that if you were on the Star Ship Enterprise and accelerated to the speed of light, time would seem normal to you, and on the earth time would seem normal too.

Let's say you are gone for one year traveling at the speed of light( or close to the speed of light) and then you come back to the earth. Time on the Star Ship = 1 year, but time on the earth would = (I am just guessing) 1000 years, so time is relative to your position and speed, but the thing is that you can not travel into the future, only backwards, or what seems backwards in time.

Time started at the Big Bang( even that is in contention by some scientist, but the universe is expanding so time had a starting point; time = 0) so in a way time is also linear( even though space-time can be warped by gravity), as the universe expanded, time marched on so to speak from the center of the singularity( that is the term that physicist use to discribe the infinitely small and dense matter before the big explosion) . My point is that you can not have time beyond the expansion of the universe, so there is no travelling into the future, because the future is not there to travel too. So all those Scifi movies were the people travel into the future 1000's of years just can not happen.

Free telephone calls with Skype. Or pay a nominal fee.

I am reading a book about the middle ages, and I came accross this passage:

"...Genghis Khan (1167 - 1227), the greatest conqueror and butcher in all human history ... The Mongol Empire was the largest land empire in history."

That started me thinking about Daniel and the story of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about, and how the statue represented world history, or the nations of the world. From all the preachers, books and stuff on the religious TV networks when I heard about Daniel preach as prophecy, the statue was always interpreted the following way:

1. the head was Babylon -- gold
2. the breast and arms silver -- Alexander the Great
3. belly and thighs brass -- the 4 generals that took over after Alexander kicked the bucket
4. legs of iron -- the Roman Empire
5. feet of iron and clay-- waaalaaaa we jump to the 21st century and that is the loose confederation of the European nations that we have to day.

Plus, the statue represents the kings, rulers, or people in power, and the changing the form of power from absolute power to demrocacy or people that have power but it is not total power that they yield I guess ( that's how it was explain to me). So in this grand scheme of nations in the world that the statue represents where are the following nations:

1. the Inca nation
2. the Mongal nation-- the greatest land nation in the history of the world. You would think that it would be part of the statue. Plus, Genghis had total, absolute power. Maybe he was not important enough?
3. the Egyptain Nation? Ancient Egypt was a nation that rule the world of and on for 3000 years you would think there would be a place in the statue for Egypt.

Just thinking and wondering.

I am always amazed when I see people in the Middle East celebrating or protesting whatever. How are they celebrating you asked, -- I say: "by firing automatic weapons into the air, do they not understand that what goes up, has to come back down!! " From what I have seen on TV they fire many rounds up into the air in the crowds of people , plus there always seems to be 4 or 5 people who are firing automatic weapons at the same time, but I am sure there are many more people shooting automatic weapons that are not shown on the TV. I just do not understand how the leaders and police of these nations let this stuff happen, I am sure people are killed from all the rounds that are falling back to the earth at 9.8 meters per sec^2. Why does this happen?

I have been thinking about this for some time. Cancer is a business, a 800 billion dollars a year business. Some of these cancer treatments cost 100's and 1000's of dollars, sometimes people lose all their savings or their house or other worldly possessions because the cancer treatments cost so much. Just for your information 1500 people a week die from cancer. We or American interest, companies and government agencies have been doing cancer research 30 or 40 years maybe? I am not sure how long cancer research have been conducted but research has been going a long time. Big Business controls the world to a certain extent, it is Big Business that does the drug research and decides what drugs they will bring to the market in concert with the FDA. On Lily's blog there is a link to Biloblog( he is a doctor and his blog does not seem to be working, not sure why) and he has a blog about the FDA and how their interest are not necessary what is best for America even though they are a government entity and their duty is to protect the American people.

What if a cure for cancer has been discovered, what are the implications or ramifications of such a discovery? Are the drug companies going to give up 800 billion dollars a year? What if a pill has been developed and it is just sitting on the shelf somewhere? Look at the jobs that are related the cancer business, maybe one pill could make all the research and related jobs disappear. Would "Big Business" let that happen? Would all the research universities let that happen? If cancer was cured, all these research institutions would lose federal grant money. There is a vested interest in keeping cancer from not being cured no matter these Drug Companies or research insitutions declare as their stated purpose in seeking a cure for cancer.

I remember reading books 15 or 20 years ago that were of a controversial nature in the sceintific world. The present book that I am reading now the author writes about the meterite that collided with the earth about 65 million years ago which resulted the destruction of the dinasours, and changing the earth's climate. The author anaylsis of all the evidence (geological and fossil ) that has been gathered over the last 20 years and now the theory is not so controversial anymore, but it is still debated by sceintist. I first read about this theory when we were in Alaska, I bought the book through the Quality Paperback Book Club which me and Lily had joined.

The "Continental Drift Theory" was another subject that I read about and at the time the sceintist were debating if the earth( plate tectonics) really existed, and were the continents really joined together in the distance past of the earth. Now a person can read about the theory and it is treated like a fact. I remember reading these books and feeling like I was on verge of some scientific discovery because I was reading the newest theories being but forth by the scientific community.

I still feel that way when I read books on new theories, like the newest books on "string theory" which deals with the basic building blocks of matter(atoms). There was a great program on PBS called "The Elegant Universe", the material is presented in such a way that a person does not need to be a scientist to understand, you only need to be curious of the universe and how it operates to be able to watch this show. I can hardly waite until until I take a quantum theory/ mechanics class at USF, that will be cool.

Boy, I sure could go for some Oreo's and milk. I think that I will go the store and buy some, and think about Africa while I dip the Oreo's in cold glass of milk--- scrumptious.

Why is 2/3's of the earth cover by water that man can not drink or use for agriculture?

I have always loved reading Physics books, I bought my first physic book when I was 16( I think), anyways it was a book on particle physics, and I remember how fascinated and amazed I was after I had read this book. The book was all about bombarding elementry particles with other elementry particles and when they broke apart you then could discover what the different particles were composed off. Ever since I read that book, physics has always been passion of mine beside computers. When I look at pictures from the Hubble, or I look at picture on Space.com I am always amazed. I am always thinking of the physical forces (gravitational, or what ever force that is needed to form the celestial object), or I am amazed at the simple things like watch water drops, drop and understanding the physics of what is involved for the water to drop.

I am taking Differential Equations this semister. Remember taking Algerbra and wondering why I am taking this, or what good is this going to do for me? Really you say that almost about any math class, anyways it all comes together with DE. Everything you learnt in Trig, Algerbra, Calc I, II, III all comes together in DE. DE it's self is not hard, it is remembering how solve the equations from all the previous math classes that is hard, I am glad that I kept all my math notes.

So what book or books are you reading? I am reading "The Prophet and the Astronomer", "A History of the Middle Ages" and "In Search of Deep Time."

Free e-books. thousands and thousands of books. I am reading 4 now, what am I going to do?

I read a book that stated that Osama bin Laden was basically fighting the Crusades, and that the United States( we are the current superpower in the world) had replaced the Imperial Nations (England and France, and the Catholic Church) that fought in the Crusades during the 11th through the 15th centuries. The author stated that because we (America, Bush Administration) did not understand that concept that the "war on terror" would never be won by the West. I am not sure that if that is true, I just think that bin Laden is fighting for his own political gain, and popularity in the Muslim world. I know that there are different Muslim sects, and they differ on the interpertation of the Koran, and how they view each other. I guess it is probably like the Catholics and Protestants killing each other, and differ on how the Bible is interperated, plus the Catholics have more books in the Catholic Bible, than the Protestant's bible. Anyways I am just related the conflicts in the Muslim world with the conflicts in the Protestant world trying to understand how, or why Muslims seem to kill each other so easily and without reguard to the collateral damage that these car bombs and other explosions caused by bin Laden and his crew.

If the Crusades are the cause for bin Laden's actions againest the West, particularly the United States in Iraq than my question is what was the cause of the Crusades ( who started what), and why have the Crusades left this indelible mark in the Muslim world that people ( particular young people) with there whole life ahead of them are willing so easily give up their lives. The Crusades were orginally started because Jerusalem was captured by the Muslims, and Pope Urban ( the pope at the time) deceided that Jerusalem need to be free from the Muslim infidels because people could not make a pilgrimages to Jerusalem in the same manner before when Jerusalem was under the control of the Byzantine Empire. Plus, "The Church of the Holy Sepulchure" was distroyed by the Muslims, this also added to the cause of the Crusades. As a side note I am reading,"A History of the Middle Ages," so I have been reading about the Crusades but one particular passage caught my eye:

"Five days later, on the night of July 13-14 the Christians attacked from there moveable towers and in the morning entered and captured the city(Jerusalem). In their frenzied exhileration the Crusaders showed no mercy but massacured all the Jews and Moslems they could find. Some ten thousand of them, according to one chroniclar, were beheaded in Soloman's Temple alone, and "had you been there, your feet would have been stained up to the ankles with the blood of the slain."" Another chroniclar described the massacure by saying that blood of the victims was up to the horse's bridals. This passage just stuck me because the brutality done by Christians in the name of God. It just did not seem right, and in my opinion leaves a dark mark on the history of the church.

Anyways, there were other Crusades with vairing degrees of sucess that the European nations had, but it seems to me that the Muslims came out on top after it was all over. I think that the Crusades are a convient excuse for bin Laden, because to my understanding the Crusades were started by the Muslims by destroying a Christian shrine that could have been left alone, I am sure that when the shine was destroyed they knew the impact it would cause in the Western Christendom. I am not a expert on the Crusades my knowlege is limited by what I have read online, and the book that I am reading of the Crusades. If bin Laden is fighting because of what happened in the first Crusade then I guess we should also be fighting the Jews too, but the slaughter was by the European nations, sooooo I just do not know if the Crusades are a valid reason.

Do this:
Grab the nearest book. *Open the book to page 123.Find the fifth sentence.Post that text and the following three sentences, along with the stuff below on your blog, along with the instructions

[*] ‘nearest’ means you can’t rummage around for a ‘cool’ or ‘intellectual’ book. Really, whatever your hand falls on first.

To freeze a sprinter, the shutter must open and close before the image of the runner perceptibly changes position on the camera’s image plane. Therefore, the faster the subject runs, the faster the shutter speed you will need to stop the action and avoid a blurred image.

A second factor affecting the final image is the camera-to-subject distance.
One elevator door was half-open on an empty shaft, from which drifted hissing wind. The door was coated to look like wood, but a dent at kneel level showed it was black metal. While he squatted, fingering the edge of the depression, something clicked: a second elevator door beside him rolled open.

“Hey, good-lookin’!” the blond driver yells, her hair flapping in the wind. “Don’t go! I think I love you!” Laughing, her friends pull her hat off.
Several people put their arms around me and said keep coming back!
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), the revolutionary leader, was himself executed in July 1794. This destruction came not from outside the system; it was produced by the system. As in the later Russian Revolution the revolutionaries on their humanist base had only two options–anarchy or repression.

In a large skillet brown meat, half at a time, in hot oil. Drain off fat. In a 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker combine undrained tomatoes, beef broth, onion, jalapeno or serrano peppers, garlic, cornmeal, chili power, brown sugar, oregano, cumin, and black pepper.

Let anyone who will not believe it, go thither and inquire for himself. There was once an ass whose master had made him carry sacks to the mill for many a long year, but whose strength began at last to fail, so that each day as it came, found him less capable of work. Then his master began to think of turning him out, but the ass, guessing that something was in the wind that boded him no good, ran away, taking the road to Bremen; for there he thought he might get an engagement as town musician.

The bus company? They got another one. Line coach Douglas Fowlkes recalled that the media wrote about the losing streak so much that it was always at the forefront of the players’ minds: “When are they going to win?”

There are also V-shaped dividers that are smaller than the frames; these go in front, to allow a deeper decolletage. In 1958, with the sexual revolution only a few years off, some of the customs inherited from the nineteenth century still survived. Despite the fact that most women now wore girdles, there were still corsets being worn — and not simply by a few elderly ladies, since Mademoiselle Etienne;s handbook contains instructions for making children’s corsets.

Roxane: Les roseaux fournissaient le bois pour vos épées…
Cyrano: Et les maïs, les cheveux blonds pour vos poupées!
Roxane: C’était le temps des jeux…
Cyrano: Des mûrons aigrelets…

Darwin's ideas are so much a part of our world view that we take them for granted, so much that we actually read the Origin, it does not seem fresh and iconaclastic, but dreary and derivative.

I tag arkadianriver